Take Me Back
by Classwork
Summary: After surviving a violent kidnap, Phee finds herself in a hospital with no memory. No one knows her story, or how she manages to live. Except for the Benedicts. They take her in, even though Phee does not know anything about them. And then there is Yves Benedict, a beautiful boy Phee feels strangely attracted to. What she does not know is that all she needs to do is remember.
1. The Kidnap

My blindfold was ripped off. My eyes squinted at the sudden ray of light. I held my head down, struggling to see through the lights and sparks I could not get used to. To no avail, I could only identify three silhouettes. I tried one more time to contact Yves with telepathically, even though I knew the distance between us was a great problem.

"Is your name Phoenix Corrigan?" A voice asked.

"Where am I?" I returned hoarsely. I refused to answer their questions and relent to the kidnappers' hands.

"I will ask this one more time. Are you or are you not Phoenix Corrigan?"" The voice turned impatient, angry and very possibly, violent. I did not care how hard they had hit me when they first brought me onto this van and blindfolded my eyes, when my plot to pause their minds temporarily so I could buy time for my escape failed. They beat me senselessly after that, too the point where I was pretty sure I had a few broken bones in me. As long as I survived, they would not care about how many broken ribs I had. I knew that because I could see that in one of their mind patterns, though the reason for that remained unknown. When I, once again, did not answer their question, I earned another angry kick to my back. My head snapped up at this. The fat man of the trio, who was looking the most flustered and was panting, must have been the one that kicked me. He asked again, adding kicks to my mid-calf at times. "Phoenix" a kick, "Corrigan" a kick. "Is that your name?" A kick. "Are you or are you not Phoenix Corrigan?" By the time he had finished his interrogation, I could not move my left calf on my own.

"Yes." I choked out.

The fat man smile, though there was no friendliness or humor in it. "See, that wasn't so hard, was it?" I glared at him, following his every movement.

After they had finished beating me up when they had first brought in this van, the same vehicle they were trapping me in, they had drugged me with chloroform. When I woke up, my head was too light and hazy that I could not even muster the energy to struggle, let alone using my savant power against them. I could already feel the soreness of my bones and muscles, unwilling to move at all.

"Alright then, next question. What is your relationship with Yves Benedict? Who are you to him?" The fat man asked. His voice was calmer now, but that did not lower my guard.

Determined to leave Yves out of this, I answered. "I don't know who you are talking about."

Another kick. This time my stomach was targeted. "Bullshit. Yves Benedict. You've been seen with him a lot lately. What's up with the two of you?"

When I remained silent, the fat man almost kicked me again. But the only woman of their little group raised her arm to stop him. She had perfect make up applied and a stiletto on. I hoped to myself that she had not stopped the fat man to do the job herself. She walked towards me, clicking sound echoing in the small space, and asked, "Look, Phoenix. If you wanted Yves safe, you would corporate. You wouldn't want him hurt and bruised, would you?"

If there was one thing I could not stand, it was my Yves or any of the Benedicts getting hurt because of me. They had taken me in when I was practically the enemy, treated me as if I had always been one of them. I glared at the woman, not wanting to relent but sad to say that I had to for the safety of Yves. "He's my husband."

"Oh! Married at such a young age. Good for you!" The woman said with a sickeningly sweet smile, the evil glint in her eyes shining brighter than ever. "Is he your soulfinder?"

"I don't know want a soulfinder is." I said.

Her expression had never faltered. "Don't lie to me, sweetie, you and I both know that you know exactly what a soulfinder is."

"If I tell you, would you hurt Yves?"

"Of course not. We keep our promises." The woman replied. I knew that there was a great chance that she could be lying, but better safe than sorry. I could not risk Yves' safety for anything.

"Yes. Yves is my soulfinder." I spoke through gritted teeth. The prospect of Yves getting hurt was unbearable.

"Oh, how lucky you Benedicts are. He's your soulfinder!"

Disgusted by the three of them, I spat, aiming at the woman's face. She let out an enraged screech. A stiletto-clad foot came charging for my chest. "Maria, stop." The old man ordered with an authoritative voice.

Maria took her foot back, so close to stabbing me in the heart. "We have made sure that she is Yves' soulfinder. I'll take care of the rest. Sean, get the car ready." The old man demanded.

With one last look, Maria and Sean left opened the car door and left, the former with a smirk on her face.

The old man walked towards me, his face unreadable, and put a hand on my head. It was cold, lifeless. Unlike Yves' hand. "This will be over soon." He said.

And then the earth parted and engulfed me. He took me to darkness, an eternal one with no prospect of going back. I tried to hold on to my memory of Yves, but they just slipped away no matter how much I wanted to keep them. Now I was truly alone.

"Hey. How are you doing?"

"Horrible." Yves replied. It had been 12 hours since he had last heard of Phee. There had been no sign of her after she told him that she needed to go to the washroom. He waited and waited, but she had never returned. "I've searched everywhere that she might have gone to. Where is she?"

Sky joined her soulfinder on the couch. She too had been helping Yves, as Phee was her best friend. "I'm so sorry that I couldn't help, Yves, I..."

"Don't worry about it. You didn't do anything wrong." Yves cut off Sky's apology. She had said it repeatedly during the day. Despite the fact that he knew that they were supposed to be consoling, he could not help but feel hopeless and angry towards everything. Losing his souldfinder was truly the worst experience ever. Even though it had only been 12 hours, life without Phee was painful.

"I'm sure Phee is alright. She is a very strong girl." Zed said. Despite how difficult it was to admit it, Yves knew that all three of them were just hoping. They had no idea who took Phee, and Phee had not been the best fighter in the world when it came to hand-to-hand combat.

The door opened. The trio turned their head, hoping to see the familiar brunette striding through the door. It was not Phee. Yves felt a pang of rage running through his veins that he had not felt in a long time. He had always been the sensible one, the more intelligent son among his brothers; never the violent one. But right then, he really wanted to kill whoever it was that took Phee away from them.

The older sons had rushed back to the family house once they were informed of Phee's disappearance and then joined Saul to search around the neighborhood. Yves had wanted to help them, but they knew how devastated he was in losing his soulfinder. Instead, Zed and Yves had been ordered to stay in the house to look after their mother and Sky, who were assumed to be the next possible victims.

"Did you find her?" Yves jumped to the door and asked, though he knew they had not. The shook of their head confirmed his suspicion. Pained, Yves dropped his body on the sofa. He wanted to cry so badly, something he had not done ever since he was young or when he learned that he could have killed Phee with his fire.

Saul patted his shoulder gently. "I'm sorry, son. There's no sign of Phee everywhere."

At the sound of her family returning, Karla rushed out and hugged Saul. The rest of the family took their seat in the living room, joining Yves, Zed and Sky. No one talked the entire time, knowing that whatever they say would not help the situation, not really.

The tension in the room was so thick that when the phone rang, the sound startled everyone. Giving Yves a kiss to his forehead, his mother picked up the phone and replied. "Hello?"

She was quiet for a while, and then a frown contorted her face. "Daniel Kelly?" She breathed.

When the rest of the family heard that, they immediately signaled their mother to turn the speaker on. Sky curled into a ball next to Zed, finding refuge in him after recalling the traumatizing things that the Kellys had done to her.

"Ah. I see you haven't forgotten me, Mrs. Benedict. Tell me, how is Sky doing?" The phone replied. With the speaker on, everyone in the room could hear it. Zed held Sky tighter in his arms.

"She is great, thank you for asking." Karla answered tentatively.

"I see that another member of your family had found his soulfinder. We had missed so many things during our time at the prison. Thank god that those stupid guards were so naïve. We wouldn't have been able to breakaway without their help." A sound of a door closing was heard in the other side. "Lucky for you. It's Yves, isn't it?"

"How did you know that?" Karla grasped the phone tighter in her hand.

"I had the pleasure of meeting Phee recently," Daniel Kelly chuckled. "Very recently."

That was all Yves could stand before taking the phone from his mother's hand and shouted at the speaker. "What did you do to Phee?"

"Relax. I believe Phee is safe now. In fact, if you take a look at your garden, you'll probably see her there." And then the line was dead. Yves banged the door open. He, followed by his family, ran to the large front garden. There laid a curled body; a young brunette lying on the snowy ground with very thin clothes. It was the same one that Phee was wearing that day.

Yves knelt next to Phee's battered body and held her close to him. Saul checked her pulse, and with a smile on his face, he nodded at Yves.

"Phee is alive, but she's been beaten severely, Yves." Xav said. The healer joined his brother on the ground. "This is too much for me to handle. Take her to the hospital. Now."

So the Benedicts drove to the hospital.


	2. The Escape

The beeping sound was getting too annoying for me to ignore. I fumbled my arms to tap the snooze button. As if they were made of lead, my arms just laid there, too heavy and too strong for me to move. I tried to open my eyes next, but the light was too bright for my eyes. I blinked for a few more time. Finally, after I had gotten used to the whiteness of the room. With more difficulty than I had predicted, I rolled my head around and scanned the room. Almost everything here was white, except for the window curtain. I knew immediately that I was staying in a hospital. I did not know how I ended up in here, but from the soreness of my muscles and how my limbs felt out of control, I guessed my injury must have been painful and violent.

There was no else in the room but me. However, balloons and flowers were everywhere; cards stood delicately on the small cupboard next to my bed. Careful so to not interfere with the many needles connecting to my body, I reached for it. Against the protest of my hand, I took it with my shaking hand. There was a girl hugging a bear on the cover. A small smile crawled on my cheeks. I opened the card. It read: _Dearest Phoenix, Get well. From the staff of Wrickenridge High._

Phoenix. That must have been my name. A bell rang in my head at my revelation. What was I? Who was I? Why was I here?

Why couldn't I remember anything?

My mind was like this room—white, so bland almost colorless and tasteless. Like the curtain, my body did not allow me to open up the possibilities of actually getting more colors back into my life. All I knew about myself was my name. And I was not even sure about it.

I was so helpless I wanted to cry. I tried to squeeze my brain until I could recall, though haziness overwhelmed my senses whenever I tried to do that. I was so devastated that I would have cut my head open and poked and looked at it to find answers if that was humanly possible.

I flopped into the hospital bed, wanting to curse my stupid, dysfunctional brain for doing such a terrible job. No matter how much I tried to think, my clean slate brain was still blank and milky. The emptiness of it scared me. It reminded me that I could very possible be alone in this world, with no one. Not even myself.

The door opened. My body flinched at the intrusion, but all too excited at the prospect of getting answers. A blonde, young girl, perhaps only a year or two younger than me, strode in gently with two balloons in her hands. Her eyes were red, her cheeks puffy, nose sniffed adorably like a little rabbit. She was crying softly under her breath. I frowned at the sight of this fairy-like creature crying like that. Maybe she knew me; or at least the old me, the one with a functioning brain. And then she turned her head to look at me. She had a light frown on her face, which was quickly replaced by a huge grin that split her face into two pieces. She ran to me, dropping the balloons, and hugged me tightly into her chest.

When she pulled back, her grin was still intact, but now she had more tears glinting in her eyes. I wished I knew what was going on. That familiar sense of helplessness went through my veins again, as I watched her, so lively with emotions in her that I could not comprehend at all. I wanted to share those feelings with her, and I was too messed up for that. I stared at her with wide eyes while she rumbled on and on.

"Oh, Phee! I just…" She paused, giving me a big hug again. How did she call me again? Phee? I thought my name was Phoenix. I guessed I would have one more question to ask her later. She pulled back, took a deep breath, and was finally able to continue her speech, which she shot out like rapid fire. "I'm so happy that you're awake! Did you know how sad and devastated and helpless I was when I found you lying in our front garden unconscious? I had to… I had to…" She covered her mouth with her hand to swallow her tears. Her voice was hoarse and tired and full of gloominess when she spoke again. "They wouldn't let me get on the ambulance because I wasn't a relative of yours. Only Yves was allowed. But I had to know that you were safe. I had to beg and beg. I prayed so many times for you to be alright! But you never woke up! Even after all these days, you just laid there!" A million more questions swam into my mind. Had I been out for so long? Who was this girl? And who was that 'relative', Yves? Is he my father? Or is 'Yves' a she and was my mother?

When I snapped back from it, I found the girl watching me. I wanted to know what to do, what facial expression should I put on. I wanted to make her feel less distant. I wanted her to stop using that sorrowful look at me when I could not even reply it with my own smile, or a slightest understanding at the situation.

I continue to stare at her, pure confusion shown on my face. She must have noticed my distant look, as she crept closer and asked with a tentative frown. "Phee?"

"Is… Is that my name?" I said. I tried the sound of that with my tongue. "Phee?"

Understanding lined her feature. Her eyes widened into shape of a saucer, as her mouth quivered at my question. I felt horrible for stealing her happiness like that, and I did not want to do that ever again, though I could not help it. I was powerless against my idiotic brain.

The blond girl climbed off my bed, staring at me the entire time. Tears started to spill again. She turned slowly, almost unable to drag her feet across the floor, while her sobs carried across the room, eventually leaving the room with her. My hands winced at the sound. I was embarrassed. Immensely. I glared at it, willing it to stop. "Please stop," I whispered to my hand. "You can't help me. No one can." I raised my voice, anger dripping between every word. I frowned at the small paper bracelet circling my wrist. I turned to wear something was written on it. Phoenix Corrigan Benedict, it said. Apparently I was born on 2 July, 18 years old. Other than that, I knew nothing about myself. I was an 18 years old girl named Phoenix Corrigan Benedict.

That was practically nothing. But I would settle with that for now. At least I had more information than I did ten minutes ago.

I repeated the information on that little bracelet in my mind again. Phoenix Corrigan Benedict. 2 July. 18. Phoenix Corrigan Benedict. 2 July. 18. I enjoyed a few more minutes of silence, until the door opened again to reveal a very handsome boy with the previous blonde following him.

"Yves, no. You don't understand." The blonde almost had to run to catch up with the boy's long strides. "You are not ready. She's not ready!"

The boy ignored the blonde girl's plea. He stopped walking, about two feet away from me, staring me with his beautiful brown eyes. He really was extremely good looking. We trained our eyes on each other, neither of us said anything. Then I heard it—a sound on ringing on my head; a tender low baritone speaking to me. In. My. Head.

_Phee?_ It asked. Upon hearing it, a killer headache took away my breath. I clutched my head with my hands, scratching it with my fingers until I drew blood, though that proved to be useless and very stupid of me. "Stop…" I moaned, the growing pain unbearable.

_Phee! What's wrong?_ The voice in my head said again.

"Please stop." I begged again. The headache inflicted once the voice came back. "Whoever you are, please stop talking to my head."

Silence. No one said anything, not even the voice in my head. My pain faded slowly. When I was better, I looked up from my crouched position to look at the two guests in my room. They were both staring at me as if they were approaching a wild animal from the zoo, so determined that I would go berserk any second. Beside the shock, there was also sadness and desperation. They were afraid of me. They just stood there, neither of them moving an inch.

The door was banged open with a loud noise, catching all of our attention. Three people walked in. The nurse and the doctor expertly stood next to me, checking for my pulses or whatever it was doctors did. The other boy, who look strangely like the one that was here first, or Yves, as I had heard the blonde girl called.

"Hi Phee," He said with a rather restrained smile and a small, awkward wave, "How are you?"

I was unable to answer that question, so I just stared at him, the silence between us strong enough to suffocate a horse. Luckily, the doctor stepped in and said, "Hello, Phoenix. My name is Dr. Bennett. Do you feel better today?"

"Is that my name?" I asked again. I could not process a word he said because my mind was so wrapped up in, well, nothing.

The doctor stared at me expectantly as if I must know my name. "Yes," He replied, writing something on this clipboard. "Or would you prefer Mrs. Benedict?"

What? I was married? I frowned at this. I was only eighteen, how did that happen? The worst thing I got out of this piece of news was that I had forgotten everything about my husband. Maybe we had a wonderful life before any memory loss tragedy happened; maybe we were so much in love that we had an epic love story. All of that did not matter, because I had lost them, and very possibly, him.

"I'll take that as a yes. Mrs. Benedict, can you tell us everything that you can remember?" The doctor said while writing more things in his clipboard.

"Nothing."

Dr. Bennett stopped writing upon hearing this. I could hear a feint sob in the background. The blonde girl was crying. The boy who looked like Yves hugged her tightly as she sob quietly. Yves, on the other hand, had a distant expression on his face. After giving me one last glance, one that almost knocked me off with the disappointment and pain he shot me, he left the room.

The doctor proceeded to ask more routine question while the blonde girl calmed down. At the end of the session, the doctor told me that a memory recovery specialist would come later to help me with my mental problems.

"Wait." The blonde girl said softly. "Can I accompany her when the memory recovery specialist comes? I might help."

Dr. Bennett looked at me. His eyes told me that the decision was mine to make. I looked at her, who was staring right back at me with a tiny glint of hope. Just as I was about to say yes, the memory of the voice and the pain that came with it shone in my brain. Although I knew that the voice was too low to be hers, I knew that she had something to do with it. I did not want to go through that pain again, that despair that gripped my chest whenever I thought about the things that had happened to me, but was gone forever.

"No." I said, looking directly at the Mr. Bennett to avoid the blonde girl's gaze. "I want some time alone. Can I rest now?"

The nurse and the doctor left immediately. With pats on their shoulders, they took the young boy and the blonde girl out too. When they left, they did not even bother to look at me.

Yves was sitting outside her room, supporting his head with his arms. He knew from Zed and Sky that she was not taking any visitor now, that she wanted to rest. Hadn't she had enough rest in the past six days when she was unconscious? Didn't she know how sad and miserable he had been? Six days. The first two days had been the worst because she was constantly on the edge of life and death. Luckily they had Xav there to help with her minor injuries. But spending the other four not knowing if she would ever wake up was another marathon for him to run alone.

And then suddenly, exceeding anyone's expectation, she woke up. He had been so elated upon knowing from Sky that she was finally awake that he had almost ran inside to see her.

Out of nowhere, she had a memory loss. Not just losing memories of things that happened in the last few months, but her entire life. The doctor said that they had not predicted it happening because the result from the brain scanner had shown nothing abnormal.

Of course the brain scanner did not know what was wrong. Phee was not physically harmed; her brain was tricked by Daniel Kelly's savant power into a memory loss.

That was not the point. Yves did not care how her memory was altered or completely washed, she did not remember him. But if Sky could remember Zed, the real one, he knew Phee could recall him too.

First of all, though, Yves need to find a way to talk to her. The door to Phee's room opened with the memory loss specialist behind Dr. Bennett's tail. The instant they came out, Yves knew something was wrong. The doctors snapped their head back and forth, looking around the corridor with worried expressions on their faces. He ran to them and asked. "Excuse me, is something wrong?"

Dr. Bennett replied, using a handkerchief to wipe the sweat on his forehead. "I am very sorry, Mr. Benedict, but it appears that your wife is missing."

He did not need to hear another word. Without a second glance, Yves ran into Phee's hospital room. It was empty. The windpipe was opened.

Faintly, he heard Dr. Bennett's voice. "She was there one second and suddenly she was gone!" Yves pulled out his phone and dialed Zed.

"Zed, where are you?" Yves asked urgently.

"In the cafeteria, what?"

"Phee's missing. I don't know where she is, so can you block the front door for me?"

"I'm on it."

After hanging up, Yves immediately looked around, searching for Phee's energy trait. It was difficult to identify it in a hospital since everyone's energy trait looked almost the same with their sickness. Finally, Yves decided that maybe Phee had already fled to the ground floor.

Unfortunately, the elevator took too long to arrive; he had to practically skip to the lowest floor. He ran to the back door and looked around.

"Yes." He muttered under his breath as he saw the back of Phee, who was still wearing a hospital gown, running away towards a more crowded area of the city. He chased after her, reaching her in no time. Phee was so slow she was barely running when he finally caught up with her.

Yves put his hands on her shoulders, forcing her to look up at him. From her grey energy aura, Yves could see that she needed sleep and food, fast. Her eyes were dropping. It pained Yves to see the love of his love so worn out, pained and not his.

"Yves…" Phee whispered weakly, her voice almost inaudible.

And then she fell into his arms.

Upon seeing his soulfinder suffering, Yves' heart pounded faster and faster, a rage to kill whoever it was that did this to Phee overwhelming his senses. He would get the Kellys back to where they belong, and they would know who they were messing with.


	3. The Past

"I don't know if I should trust you. The last time we were together in the same room, my brain hurt like hell," I said, looking up at Yves and hoped that he was not looking at me like an idiot. He was not.

Neither of us spoke for a while. I was nervous that he would immediately send me back into the world, where I did not know a soul. Why wouldn't he? I met him in a hospital after waking up with no memory whatsoever, escaped without telling anyone. He caught me before I collapsed due to fatigue and hunger. When I woke up again, I was in his home and lying in his bed. He told me that I could stay here, that he would take care of me and other things. He seemed nice enough, taking care of an amnesia patient when said patient fainted in the middle of the street. He even made me hot chocolate before asking me questions.

Sensing that he would probably not say anything for a while because of my weird confession, I continued. "I'm sorry if that scares you, I don't know what happened, but my headache really hurt."

"Do you remember your name?" He asked. The change of subject relieved me of my anxiety temporarily.

"I don't remember it when I first woke up, but then I saw the bracelet the hospital gave me. My name is Phoenix Corrigan Benedict, isn't it?"

Yves smile, a wistful and jaded smile that should not appear on his youthful face. "Yes, Benedict. You preferred 'Phee' over 'Phoenix."

"So that's why the blonde girl and the boy who looked like you called me that. Thank you, I was wondering if they got the room number wrong." I joked, laughing half-heartedly.

"Zed and Sky visited you almost every day when you were in the coma. They most certainly did not mess the room number up, trust me." He said pointedly. He was angry at me; I knew I should not have stayed here in the first place. My existence would only fuel pain and sadness in other people.

It was so quiet that we could probably hear a pin dropping.

Finally, he spoke. "How did you get away? The doctors said that you seemed to vanish."

He just had to ask the question I was hoping he would not. Pausing mind seemed to come to me; I could do that so easily that it was essentially a part of me. But he did save me; I had to be honest with him, even though that might make him throw me away. "I sort of paused their minds for a while so that they would not know what happen when I was escaping."

"Is there a name for people who can do things like that?" Yves asked. He still seemed a bit too calm for a normal human being.

I took a deep breath and said, "Yes. We call ourselves savants."

"Well then. Watch this." He said. He stood up from the chair opposite to the bed and knelt next to me. He held his palm between us. Then something magical happened. Fire manifested from his palm and took a form of a beautiful flower. I gasped and moved closer to the wall, afraid that the fire would hurt me. It did not; the flower bloomed before it vanished entirely. I stared at Yves in wonder. How did he do that? Could it be that he was a savant too? He was looking at his palm, regret and longing flashed in his eyes.

A searing pain traveled to my head again. In my mind's eyes, I could see the same scene—Yves giving me a fire flower. We were separated by a door. Love and admiration flooded my emotions upon seeing that. However, that pain was catching up with my brain as well. "Ah!" I screamed.

Yves was sitting next to me immediately. He held me up by my shoulders, supporting me while I experienced that headache of the century. It took a few more minutes for my body to take the lessening pain.

"Do you feel better now?" I answered with a nod. "What happened?"

Taking a few deep breathes, I said, "I had an image in my head when you gave me that flower. Have you given it to me before?"

Yves looked surprised. Underneath his surprise, I could also find, to my relief, happiness growing from my answer. "Yes. I gave you that the 2nd day we'd met."

"I guess that was the image I saw. I don't know why it popped up out of nowhere, but it did. I think you giving me that same flower just then triggered my old memory."

We were silent for a few seconds, and then Yves tilted my head upwards slightly. My cheeks burned at the touch, secretly craving for more. His face was sincere, serious, still impossibly handsome, when he whispered in a voice that made my knees weak. "Please remember this."

Despite the memory loss, I knew this kind of kiss did not happen to anyone. His lips were hot and gentle on mine, softly caressing my tender skin. His hands were wandering freely and modestly along my back all the way to my neck, then my back again. After wondering what to do with my awkwardly stuck in the middle hands, I rested them gently onto his neck. As the kiss got more heated, neither of us wanted to stop it. My hands pulled him closer to me, so close that our bodies were touching everywhere. It was not enough; too mild. His tongue sought entrance into my lips, sweeping the lower lips, and then the upper one with a slow heat that I almost snapped at him and went mad.

A memory flooded my mind.

It was Yves and I, standing in the altar, reading our marriage vows. We kissed, after the preacher had pronounced us husband and wife.

We were happy, smiling so much that I was surprised that our faces did not actually break into half. The way he looked at me—the love so sure and obvious, for the bride standing in front of him—me, who was grinning just as stupidly, if not more. We did not care how stupid we look, a newlywed couple standing there after sharing their first kiss of their marriage, just looking at each other, smiling at each other. We were in love, the kind that will last forever.

I tried hard to hold on to my new found memory and continue my kiss with Yves at the same time, but I knew the moment that the memory ended, the pain was next. I gasped into Yves lips when that happened, trying to break away from his hold, but he would not let me go. He hugged me tighter, while the pain travelled deeper into my head. I tightened my grip on Yves as if it was a lifeline, focusing on the kiss as the pain broke my head into two.

When it was finally over, I did not even notice it. What I did notice was that Yves' lips were swollen; I could only imagine mine to be the same. "Can you remember?" Yves rested his forehead to mine.

"Yes, Mr. Benedict." I whispered. Yves' lips turned upwards, "But the headache is still there whenever I tried to remember something."

"You loved the fire flower the first time I gave you." Yves sighed. "That's how I court you when I knew you were my soulfinder. Of course, that didn't stop you from running away, but I think the flower helped a lot."

"You are my soulfinder? But that's impossible. That's a myth!"

"That most certainly isn't a myth. Zed and Sky are soulfinders, my mom and dad are soulfinders, and you are mine." He smiled. "Even if I'm not your soulfinder, I would still be too stupid to let you go, Phee."

I was shocked, confused and excited by his confession. I would never have thought that someone so handsome and kind would go after me. I must have been playing hard to get the entire time. If anything, it should be me who chased after Yves, not the other way around. I stared at Yves, signaling him to continue, seeing that he should know more about myself than me.

Yves stared back for a few moments, and continued. "You were British. You were stealing my iPad and iPhone when we met. I didn't know how precious you are to me, so I burned your hands. The next day, you just took my backpack all together in a lesson I was taking. I found out that you were my soulfinder and that you were in a sticky situation."

"Stop." I interfered. "What is the 'sticky situation'?"

Yves let out a throaty laugh. This was the first time I had heard him do that—laughing without the sarcasm in his voice. It sounded much better. "You always interrupt me and challenge me. You are still the same, Phee."

I did not know what to say. Here this boy was, telling me the story of my life, and yet I could not make any comment on it.

"You were part of a savant society, an evil one. You were kind of like a pseudo-daughter of the leader of it, the Seer. You stole things for him. I became his target, which is how we met. I brought you back to the apartment my brothers and I were staying. That was when I gave you that fire flower."

The knock on the door interrupt him before he could go any further. An older woman, probably just reached her forties, stuck her head in and told Yves, "Yves! You said you would let Phee have some girls' time with Sky and I! Don't keep her to yourself. I haven't talked to her for a really long time!"

Then she turned to me and exclaimed, "Phee! I know you may not remember me, but I am your mother-in-law, just call me Karla."

She gave me a huge smile, and left. I would not have been surprised if someone told me that she skipped the stairs instead of walking.

Yves stood up, holding his hand out for me. I took it. "Are you ready to meet the others?"

* * *

"So, can you do it?" Yves asked Uriel.

"I think so. But Yves," Uriel looked straight at Yves and said. "You said it yourself that Phee experiences headache whenever her past came back to her. I can't guarantee that she wouldn't feel it if I make her remember."

"I understand." Yves replied.

"No. It's not about you, it's about her, whether she knows the possible consequences or not. If she is willing to take that risk, I'll do it. You'd better hope Sky can convince her."

Phee had already met the Benedicts and was now spending some alone time with Sky, while Sky told her about her similar experience of being brainwashed by the Kellys. They had agreed that it was best for someone who had been there to convince Phee to let Uriel work. Granted, it was not the same scenario. Sky's memory was altered, but Phee's was completely gone. He wanted Phee to remember. Yes, Yves knew Uriel had a point. After all, he had no idea how hard it was to go through a memory loss and to have the headaches. Despite that, it would be lying if he said that he did not want Phee to undergo the pain if it meant Phee could remember again.

The door to Zed's room opened to reveal Sky and Phee. "I'll do it." Phee whispered. Yves rushed to hug her immediately, elated that she made the right choice. Phee was stiff against her, cold, unlike the old Phee, who loved him with all her heart.

Yves pulled back and looked at Phee. "Are you ready?" He asked her.

"Yes." Was Phee's simple and nonchalant answer.

She would be better. She would remember him. Yves said to himself.

Uriel led Phee to his room. Before they went in, Yves could hear Uriel asked Phee, "Do you want Yves to accompany you?"

"No," said Phee. Yves' heart sank deeper. "I don't want him there."

Yves watched as the two disappeared from his line of vision. Yes, she would be better. He kept muttering to himself. He would not be able to live with himself if she did not.


End file.
